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Another martyr, another pillar

While the government fails to address the political killings, these killings continue, the latest victim in the Cordillera region is a member of the Kalinga tribe.

A young pangat (peacepact holder) of the Malbong tribe of Kalinga Rafael Markus Bangit was mercilessly gunned down by assassins while the bus stopped at San Isidro, Echague, Isabela traveling for Baguio City in the evening of June 8. The assassins pumped four bullets into his chest and stomach. Gloria Casuga, another passenger of the same bus and a high school principal of Quezon town of Isabela, was sprayed with bullets. The assassins ensured that even an innocent witness of this political killing would be silenced – not to identify the assassins, even if their faces were covered with bonnets.

Bangit and Casuga are now among the more than 600 killed by the death squad of this administration. These are not merely rare incidents of killings. It is a covert policy of the administration aimed to silence those who question her programs.

The killings of Bangit and Casuga are condemnable. It is violative to the basic right to life and due process. It exposes the character of the present administration of taking the lives of political activist and innocent witnesses to a crime – extra-judicially - just to continuously perpetuate itself to power, as its mandate is not only questionable but fast eroding.

As a community paper that advocates the respect of indigenous peoples’ rights, we condemn this administration for allowing, if not adopting, these political killings. We join Bangit’s family and tribe in mourning for the untimely death of Markus whose activities were unquestionably for the welfare of his tribe and the poor and oppressed.

Bangit is a respected member of the Malbong tribe, who had dedicated his skills and knowledge to his people peaceful co-existence with other tribes. He was involved in restoring and facilitating the bodong (peacepact ) of his tribe with their kabodong (tribe to whom they have peacepact relations), and even on the bodong of other tribes on which both are in conflict with. Believing tribal war and conflict as barrier to tribes’ existence, he is a founder and active officer of the Binodngan Peoples Organization (organization of people in the bodong-practicing areas) which works for the restoration of broken pact without monetary consideration for his efforts.

The assassins might think that the killing of Markus would silence the Cordillera indigenous peoples’ struggle against the anti-people policies of GMA, like the anti-mining campaign, where Markus and his tribe and group are very vocal. But the death of Kalinga leaders like Macliing Dulag had fueled peoples’ strong opposition. We view that the killing of Markus will contribute to the peoples’ opposition against the anti-indigenous peoples’ policies of the present administration. #

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